1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods used to process waste material and, more particularly, to such methods designed to process waste material recovered from multiple collection sites.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid waste hauling companies often process small batches of waste material from multiple collection sites, such as septic tanks or portable restrooms each workday. A convenient and economical apparatus and system for processing small batches of waste material is disclosed by the inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,427. The apparatus includes a processing tank in which a small batch of waste material, between 750 and 2,000 gallons, is first oxidized and then separated into waste water and sludge material. The waste water is then deposited back into the septic tank. The sludge material is deposited on site and used as fertilizer or transported and deposited at a private or public waste water treatment facility.
The sludge material is transported by the liquid waste hauling companies to the waste water treatment facilities in hauling trucks with large vacuum tanks capable of holding approximately 2,000 gallons of waste material. Most private and public waste water treatment facilities charge a fixed fee based on the maximum capacity of the truck's vacuum tank. No credit or reduction of the fee is given to hauling companies when their vacuum tanks are partially filled. It is therefore more economical for hauling companies to completely fill their vacuum tanks with sludge material before delivery to the waste water treatment facility.
An important drawback, however, is collecting and processing the necessary volume of waste material to produce sufficient amount of sludge material to fill the hauling truck's vacuum tank. One possible way to overcome this drawback is to process multiple, small batches of waste material and then collect the sludge material produced from each small batch. When a sufficient amount of sludge material has been produced--i.e., amount equal to the capacity of the hauler's vacuum tank--it could then be transported to the waste water treatment facility.